Wooden on Leadership
A famous basketball coach John Wooden developed his Pyramid of success nearly 70 years ago. Nevertheless, it is still relevant nowadays. Moreover, this model can be accepted not only in sports but also for business environment. The main reason why this pyramid became so popular in different spheres of life and has not lost its relevance yet is that it does not focus primary on the results (victories) but on identification and implementation of the maximum capacities. Thus, Wooden likes to say “"success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best you are capable of becoming" (John Wooden). According to this Pyramid success consists of 15 components:
Industriousness – training and hard working.
Friendship- the establishment of friendly relations with colleagues and partners may become very useful.
Loyalty – but not in every situation. Sometimes a leader needs to be harsh.
Cooperation – is essential between team members.
Enthusiasm – one needs to love what he does and inspire others.
Self-control – to think several times before
Alertness – “is that asset that keeps you awake and perceptive and increases Skill”(John Wooden).
Initiative.
Intentness – “is the ability to stay the course even when that course is most difficult and the obstacles seem insurmountable” (John Wooden).
Condition – physical, moral , mental.
Skill.
Team spirit – when people have one goal their synergy effect will increase chances for success.
Poise – “holding fast to your principles and beliefs and acting in accordance with them regardless of how bad (or good) the situation may be” (John Wooden).
Confidence.
Competitive greatness – “is having a real love for the hard battle knowing it offers the opportunity to be at your best when your best is required” (John Wooden).
Most of these principles are acceptable for business environment. Not by chance one of them was borrowed from the business sphere – Industriousness. It goes without saying that both in sport and in business it is impossible to reach at the top without hard work. If to speak about PEG Company, its business activity is built on many of the component of the Wooden’s Pyramid. Thus, high demands to every employee’s skills were made within the organization. Moreover, the management of the company pays a lot of attention to the process of building a team spirit and with this purpose numerous unformal meeting, corporate weekends are organized. Thanks to those steps, the atmosphere of friendship and cooperation prevailed between all the staff.
What I personally like most in this Pyramid is its close attention to interpersonal communication. I strongly believe that in order to build a successful and efficient business it is necessary to start with a team. For me, a perfect leader is one who prefers to use transformational leadership style which is based on high level of communication within the team. In this case, Wooden’s Friendship, Loyalty, Cooperation and Team spirit reflect fundamental values for me. However, an effective team usually starts with effective leader. Wooden paid lot of attention to personal skills of an efficient leader. A successful leader cannot require from employees more than from himself. Such components of Wooden Pyramid as self-control, alertness and poise are essential for leaders who want to reach the success. The 10th component of this Pyramid became a real discovery for me. I have never attached importance or associated the success with the physical condition. Thanks’ to Wooden’s work I became to consider this point very important.
After analyzing Wooden’s pyramid of success I would like to identify 5 main steps to any success:
Industriousness – I find this as the essential part for any process of success.
Clear goals and ways to archive them – Wooden’s Pyramid does not include this step but for a business success it is one of the most important.
Inventiveness – in order to compete effectively, any organization should implement new approaches, find new ways to success. In addition, if any unpredictable situation occurs, a successful organization should react immediately and, if necessary, review their activities in order to adapt to a new environment.
Usage of technologies – in our era of fast moving technological progress, it is hardly possible to archive a success without the usage of science and technology. In this step it is also worth not only to keep pace with times but also be ahead of it.
Highly organized personality – this point combines Wooden’s self-control, intentness, condition, poise and confidence. I would like to add decency here because modern business very often feels shortage of decency and uses unfair and sometimes even sneaky methods to reach a success.
References
John Wooden coach and teacher. Pyramid of success. Retrieved from http://www.coachwooden.com/pyramid-of-success
